At 20:50 on April 13, 2022, Comrade Wang Yumei, a famous performing artist, former vice chairman of the Shandong Federation of Literary and Art Circles, honorary chairman of the Shandong Filmmakers Association, and a first-class actor of the Shandong Provincial Drama Theatre, died of illness in Beijing at the age of 87.
Yu Haifeng, chairman of the Shandong Filmmakers Association, wrote a reminiscence article remembering the famous performance artist Wang Yumei.
I remember that since I was a girl, I have been a devout audience member of Teacher Wang Yumei. The image of Zhao Wu's aunt created by watching her first film "After the Harvest" has long been engraved in my mind. After that, after watching her films such as "Pingying Tomb", "Mountain Chrysanthemum", "Inner Dangjia", "Heart Fragrance", "Wu Kui", "Xiying Gate", "Garland Under the Mountain", "Tan Sitong", "Golden Marriage", "The End of Love", etc., she played a series of middle-aged and elderly women's images, which were well known at the time.
I really knew her in 1996, shortly after I transferred to the Shandong Film Artists Association, because I received the task of jointly organizing the "Society Award" (later renamed the "Golden Phoenix Award") jointly organized by the China Film Performance Society and the Shandong Film Association, and I came to Mr. Wang's house as an organizer. She was very happy to hear that the Provincial Film Association wants to organize national film activities: "Shandong, as a large cultural province, has not held such high-level activities for a long time, and as a film association, it is indispensable, I believe you have the ability to do a good job." ”
TV series "Children's Love"
At that time, a TV series starring Teacher Wang that showed the ordinary family life in Shanghai, "Children's Love", was being broadcast nationwide, and the hard-working, thrifty, tolerant and kind Shanghai mother and mother played in the play became the topic of discussion after tea, and she also won the Best Actress Award of the Golden Eagle Award of China Television that year; as early as the early 1980s, she had won the second "Golden Eagle Award" and the fourth "Feitian Award" Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in the TV series "Garland Under the Mountain". In addition, she played a humiliating Jiaodong woman Renwu Mama in a rural film that reflects family ethics and morality, "Xiyingmen", which also caused a sensation, and the film won the Best Feature Film Award of the Chinese Film Hundred Flowers Award that year, and Wang Yumei's outstanding performance was undoubtedly indispensable. Soon, she won the Golden Rooster Award of Chinese Film and the Best Supporting Actress Award of the Hundred Flowers Award respectively with the liang daniang who understood the righteousness in the movie "Wreath Under the Mountain" and the arrogant middle-aged Cixi in "Tan Sitong".
Experience life while filming the movie "Joy Gate"
When I congratulated Ms. Wang on her achievements, she said: "As an actor, I am nothing remarkable, and I am the same as workers in different positions such as workers and farmers. The popularity of an actor condenses the painstaking efforts of the creative staff of various art departments, and the actor is only a laborer who is easy to become famous; the highest reward for the actor should always live in the eyes of the audience. "This is Wang Yumei, facing honor, peaceful and modest, low-key and not ostentatious.
In 1999, the 7th Film Performing Arts "Society Award" was held as scheduled, and Zhang Ruifang, Qin Yi, Yu Yang, Tian Hua and other well-known film performance artists gathered in Quancheng. When many young and middle-aged actors see Teacher Wang, they all hug her invariably, and the first sentence when they meet is: Mom, are you okay? It shows that the image of the child mother in her "Children's Love" has been widely recognized. After that, the Shandong Provincial Film Association successively held the "Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival Film Works Preliminary Evaluation", "The First National Seminar on shaping the Image of Special Actors and Leaders", "Shandong Film Creation Commendation Conference", "Shandong DV Film Competition", "Sino-Japanese Film Literature Drama Seminar", "Shandong Youth Micro Film Competition" and other activities, unfortunately, every time Teacher Wang was filming in other places, but every time she called me to congratulate me on the success of the event, and let me send the activity briefing to read carefully, which made me feel warm.
Movie "Garland Under the Mountain"
I had the honor to attend the 7th and 8th National Congresses of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the 6th and 7th National Congresses of the China Filmmakers Association, and the 13th and 14th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festivals with her. Facing old artists such as Lan, Qin Yi, Sun Daolin, Yu Yang, and Wang Xiaotang, she is always respectful and respectful. She often said to me: "The artistic image created by these old artists is not simply performed, let alone made, but penetrates from the bones, accumulates, and then overflows." Their character and art are enough for me to learn for a lifetime! And Xi Meijuan, Li Xuejian, Ni Ping, Tang Guoqiang, Gaike and other young and middle-aged actors regard Wang Yumei as an artist and have great respect for her. In 1995 and 2005, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of world cinema and Chinese cinema, Wang Yumei won the honorary titles of "Chinese Film Century Award" and "100 Outstanding Actors of Chinese Cinema in the Past 100 Years" respectively, and she was the only one in Shandong who had this honor, but she was still so modest and low-key. She always kept in mind the words that Premier Zhou once said to her in 1963 after Jin Jing, the crew of "After the Harvest", reported to the Party Central Committee on the performance: An actor, whether he becomes a star or not, whether he becomes an artist or not, it is up to the masses to recognize you, not to seal it yourself.
Movie "Tan Si Tong"
Artistically, Wang Yumei is a representative figure in the mainland film industry. She regards creation as the life of art, her performance talent is multifaceted, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, peasants, scholars can control all kinds of roles; her performance is realistic, in shaping characters, always starting from life, easy to relax, with emotional people, truth and beauty is the artistic ideal she diligently pursues. She is convinced that in a film, the actor must pour the greatest passion, which is the crystallization of the actor's character and cultivation, and it is also a burning of life. In 1984, the movies "Garland Under the Mountain" and "Tan Sitong" started up almost at the same time, she had to rush from Guangxi to Changchun, enduring a temperature difference of tens of degrees, overloaded with running so that she had a high fever, but she was engrossed, and her mind was constantly speculating about the roles of two different eras. In 1985, Teacher Wang won two major awards in the 5th "Golden Rooster Award" Best Supporting Actress Award and the 8th "Hundred Flowers Award" Best Supporting Actress Award for Her outstanding acting skills in the movie "Tan Si Tong" and Liang Da Niang in "Garland Under the Mountain". So far, this is the only one in the Chinese film industry. She often said: "My pursuit of making movies is to give people very beautiful things, a kind of hope, to play a role in aesthetic education and warning, hoping to contribute beauty to the motherland and the people." "
Drama "Memories in Exile"
In addition to participating in the filming of film and television dramas, Wang Yumei's favorite is the drama stage performance. In 1998, Wang Yumei's drama "Memories in Exile" caused another sensation when it was performed in Beijing. The drama was created by Comrade Zhai Jianping, a famous screenwriter and lover of Teacher Wang, and mainly shows a little-known touching story that happened when Comrade Deng Xiaoping was in Jiangxi during the "Cultural Revolution", wang Yumei played a rural woman in southwest Lu. On the stage, Teacher Wang's lines are exquisite, the action, shape, rhythm is accurate and distinct and strong, she uses different tones and tones, sincerely and naturally expresses the inner feelings of Ermanzi, which is extremely penetrating, so that the audience sinks into a strong dramatic meaning, which is unforgettable for a long time.
Gogol said, "Art is always a discovery. "Constantly going deep into life, understanding life, observing life, capturing real things in the ordinary, and discovering beauty in things that others are common to see, this is Wang Yumei's consistent artistic style, and it is also the root of the characters she creates that are full of life breath and life charm."
Treat art as life and dedicate life to ideals. How much we need such artists in our time!